The Belgium boss and the former Everton manager defended Romelu Lukaku for his difficult time at Manchester United.
Romelu Lukaku was held accountable at Manchester United according to Roberto Martinez. And the Belgium head coach believes that the Inter Milan striker took unfair blame during his spell at Old Trafford. In 2017, United signed Lukaku for £75 million from Everton. The prolific frontman managed to bag 42 goals in 96 appearances at his new club. However, his fine efforts did not keep Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer content.
As a result, the 27-year-old moved to Inter in Serie A in 2019. Lukaku’s striking prowess has continued to astonish everyone with his 41 goals in 58 outings for Nerazzurri. And people are questioning as to why the attacker did not show similar standards at Manchester. But Martinez thinks that Lukaku did not receive enough respect throughout his time for the Red Devils.
The Belgium boss told talkSPORT: “My relationship with Romelu was from a young player when he came to Everton on loan.
“Then we made a massive effort to get him on a permanent basis. And he was the transfer record at that time.
“You can see the player going through phases, good moments, bad moments. But what we’ve seen with Romelu is he’s never lost his outstanding quality which is scoring goals.
“Now we’ve seen a real maturity in his play.
“The time he had at Manchester United, he was so desperate to win trophies and he took a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. And probably took a lot of blame, in my eyes, very unfairly.
“But going to Italy, he’s in the middle of a new project. He’s taken that responsibility and those difficulties he had in England in a good way.
“The player we have now is a player in the best maturity moment of his career.”
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